Monitoring the global Gross Primary Pproduction (GPP) is relevant to understanding the global carbon cycle and evaluating the effects of interannual climate variation on food and fiber production. GPP, the flux of carbon into ecosystems via photosynthetic assimilation, is an important variable in the global carbon cycle and a key process in land surface-atmosphere interactions. The Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is one of the primary global monitoring sensors. MODIS GPP has some of the problems that have been proven in several studies. Therefore this study was to solve the regional mismatch that occurs when using the MODIS GPP global product over Korea. To solve this problem, we estimated each of the GPP component variables separately to improve the GPP estimates. We compared our GPP estimates with validation GPP data to assess their accuracy. For all sites, the correlation was close with high significance ($R^2

Hydrometeor type and Drop Size Distribution (DSD) in cloud are the fundamental properties that may help explain the rain formation processes and determine the parameters of radar meteorology. This study presents a preliminary analysis of hydrometeor types and DSD data of cloud measured with a PARSIVEL (PARticle SIze and VELocity) optical disdrometer at the site of Cloud Physics Observation System (CPOS, , , 843 m from sea level) in Daegwallyeong mountainside of Korea. The method has been validated by comparing the observed rainfall rates with the computed ones from the fitted distribution, using the physical data such as DSD, terminal velocity, and rain intensity which were measured by a Micro-Rain Radar (MRR) and a PARSIVEL optical disdrometer. The analysis period started in three cases: on rainy days with light rain (15.5 mm), moderate rain (76 mm), and heavy rain (121 mm), from March to November 2007, respectively.

The Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution (BRD) effect is critical to interpret the surface information using remotely sensed data. This effect was caused by geometric relationship between sensor, target and solar that is inevitable effect for data of optical sensor. To remove the BRD effect, semi-empirical BRDF models are widely used. It is faster to calculate than physical models and demanded less observation than empirical models. In this study, Ross-Li kernel and Roujean kernel were used respectively in National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) that are used to compare each other. The semi-empirical model consists of three parts which are isotropic, geometric and volumetric scattering. Each part contained physical kernel and empirical coefficients that were calculated by statistical method. Red and NIR channel of SPOT/VEGETATION product were used to compute Nadir BRDF Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR) over East Asia area from January 2009 to December 2009. S1 product was provided by VITO that was conducted atmospheric correction using Simplified Method of Atmospheric Correction (SMAC). NBAR was calculated using corrected reflectance of red and NIR. Previous study has revealed that Roujean geometric kernel had unphysical values in large zenith angles. We extracted empirical coefficients in three parts and normalized reflectance to compare both BRDF models. Two points located forest in Korea peninsular and bare land in Gobi desert were selected for comparison. As results of time series analysis, both models showed similar reflectance change pattern and reasonable values. Whereas in case of empirical coefficients comparison, different changes pattern of values were showed in isotropic coefficients.

Spatial information of snow cover and depth distribution is a key component for snowmelt runoff modeling. Wide snow cover areas can be extracted from NOAA AVHRR or Terra MODIS satellite images. In this study eight sets of annual snow cover data (1997-2006) in two mountainous watersheds (A: Chungju-Dam and B: Soyanggang-Dam) were extracted using NOAA AVHRR images. The distribution of snow depth within the Snow Cover Area (SCA) was generated using snowfall data from ground meteorological observation stations. Snow depletion characteristics for the two watersheds were analyzed snow distribution time series data. The decreased pattern of SCA can be expressed as a logarithmic function; the determination coefficients were 0.62 and 0.68 for the A and B watersheds, respectively. The SCA decreased over 70% within 10 days from the time of maximum SCA.

This present study describes an application of UV scanning spectrometer data for retrieval of aerosol vertical profiles in Seoul during the measurement period that includes two Asian dust event days. The results show large variations of aerosol load in vertical and temporal scales. Large variations in aerosol were observed at 1 km in height during the daytime in the measurement period when the Asian dust events took place. The aerosol load, however, was found to be largest at the surface compared to those retrieved at the higher atmospheric layers. The results also clearly identified the diurnal patterns of aerosol vertical distributions. The aerosol load was high in the morning and noon whereas it was low in the afternoon. This study demonstrates that UV scanning spectrometer observations of the oxygen dimer can serve as a potential method for determination of atmospheric aerosol vertical distributions and optical properties.

This study detected red tide areas using the existing Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) and Geostationary Ocean Color Imager(GOCI), and then compared the results between results of two sensors. The coasts of Jeollanam-do in the South Sea of Korea were set as the study area based on the red tide data which occurred on Aug. 26th, 2012. This study compared the results of sensors to detect red tides by using a satellite. In the results of analyzing MODIS by limiting it as chlorophyll concentration and the sea surface temperature which is considered to have red tides by the existing researches, it was possible to delete considerable amount of errors compared to the case of detecting red tides by using only chlorophyll while still there were differences from the range of red tides actually observed. In the results of GOCI by using empirical algorithm for detecting red tides, currently used by Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology(KIOST), it was possible to obtain more detailed results than MODIS. However, there was an area misjudged as red tides due to the influence of clouds. Also both MODIS and GOCI extracted red tides were not actually occurring, which might be because they were not able to perfectly distinguish red tides from turbid water in coastal areas with high turbidity.

Communication Ocean Meteorological Satellite (COMS) for the hybrid mission of meteorological observation, ocean monitoring, and telecommunication service was launched onto Geostationary Earth Orbit on June 27, 2010 and it is currently under normal operation service on East of the geostationary orbit since April 2011. In order to perform the three missions, the COMS has 3 separate payloads, the meteorological imager (MI), the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI), and the Ka-band antenna. The MI and GOCI perform the Earth observation mission of meteorological observation and ocean monitoring, respectively. For this Earth observation mission the COMS requires daily mission commands from the satellite control ground station and daily mission is affected by the satellite control activities. For this reason daily mission planning is required. The Earth observation mission operation of COMS is described in aspects of mission operation characteristics and mission planning for the normal operation services of meteorological observation and ocean monitoring. And the first one-year normal operation results after the In-Orbit-Test (IOT) are investigated through statistical approach to provide the achieved COMS normal operation status for the Earth observation mission.